Bolivia:Institutional Strengthening for LATCO and its small producers.

LATCO is a private company specialized in the organic production and export of sesame seeds. This Operational Input seeks to facilitate the necessary tools to increase the productivity of LATCO's transformational processes, and help increase its presence in new markets. Additionally, it aims to promote growth and increase crop yields for small producers.

Project Number BO-T1140
Operation Number ATN/FG-12947-BO
Country: Bolivia
Sector:Agriculture and Rural Development
Subsector:Agricultural Credit
Project Type:Technical Cooperation
Project Subtype:CT/Fondo Trust Funds
Status:Approved
Approval Date: OCT 11, 2011

Financial Information
Total Cost-Historic:USD 224,810
Country Counterpart Financing - Historic:USD 67,443.IDB Financing.
Financing Type:Non-Reimbursable Technical Cooperation
Fund:Spanish Framework General Fund
Reporting currency: EUR - Euro
Reporting Date:OCT 31, 2011

BO-T1140 : Institutional Strengthening for LATCO and its small producers.

Project Status: APP. Country: Bolivia. Project Number: BO-T1140. Approval date: Oct 11, 2011

BO-T1140 : Institutional Strengthening for LATCO and its small producers

Paraguay:Rural financial services via village banking

The objective of the project is to expand and diversify the supply of sound microfinance services in rural areas, by improving the capacity of financial intermediaries to reach underserved clients. The purpose of the project is to implement the methodology of village banking in Financiera El Comercio's operations, so that it can expand its credit and savings services to low income populations in rural areas of Paraguay. The project will consist of a Technical Cooperation.

Inter American Develepment Bank.

Project Status: APP. Country: Paraguay. Project Number: PR-M1022. Approval date: Oct 28, 2011

Rural financial services via village banking

Cluster Development.Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean. Lessons from the Experience of the Inter-American Development Bank

National and local governments, international organizations and donors are increasingly using the instrument of cluster development programs (CDP) to promote economic development. This paper builds on the recent experiences of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in financing and executing cluster development programs, explores their conceptual approach and actual practice, and learns some preliminary lessons.

This preliminary review remarks that CDP offer remarkable development potential, provided that they are consistent with the whole system of private sector development policy support. They represent an important opportunity to remedy the coordination failures that constantly hinder the process of economic development.

Some specific lessons may be summarized as follows:

(i) cluster development programs are often very diverse but usually share one common achievement: they have succeeded in creating public and private “institutional spaces” to negotiate, design and implement projects with shared benefits and externalities;

(ii) in all these experiences governments have always taken the leadership to initiate the cluster programs and provide the tools and at least part of the
financing;

(iii) Cluster programs need to enjoy the highest possible Government priority and the coordination with other Government bodies and with other productive sectors is essential;

(iv) Additional essential elements of the programs’ success appear to be the involvement of the community and the private sector with the program since the initial design stages;

(v) Institutional intermediaries between governments and actors have often helped manage and correct “apathy” and information gaps; (vi) As a result of the many CDP implemented in several regions in Latin America and the Caribbean, new capabilities to manage complex projects requiring governance, group decision-making, collective actions, complementarities and coordination have been created. Such experiences have helped put in place new public-public and public-private processes relevant to production and competitiveness.

Cluster Development.Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean. Lessons from the Experience of the Inter-American Development Bank. Carlo Pietrobelli.Claudia Stevenson. November 2011.

The Inter-American Development Bank Discussion Papers and Presentations are documents prepared by both Bank and non-Bank personnel as supporting materials for events and are often produced on an expedited publication schedule without formal editing or review. The information and opinions presented in these publications are entirely those of the author(s), and no endorsement by the Inter-American Development Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the countries they represent is expressed or implied. This paper may be freely reproduced.

Cluster Development.Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean. Lessons from the Experience of the Inter-American Development Bank

Argentina:AR-L1129 : Banco de Inversion y Comercio Exterior (BICE) TFFP

Inter American Develepment Bank. The project consists on a guarantee line under the TFFP program for Banco de Inversion y Comercio Exterior (BICE) for up to USD 25 MM

Argentina:AR-L1129 : Banco de Inversion y Comercio Exterior (BICE) TFFP

Argentina: AR-M1062: Federal Government Procurment Portal

BID. Project Number: AR-M1062. Operation Number: ATN/ME-12977  AR.Country:Argentina.Sector:Information Technology and Telecomm. Subsector:Info and Communications Technology. Project Type:Multilateral Investment Fund Operation.Project Subtype:MIF Multilateral Investment Fund.Status:Approved. Approval Date:NOV 4, 2011

Argentina: AR-M1062: Federal Government Procurment Portal

One Region, Two Speeds? Challenges of the New Economic Order for Latin America and the Caribbean

This report highlights how, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, key structural characteristics of Latin American and Caribbean countries are defining two quite different regional clusters in terms of opportunities and challenges ahead. It shows that substantial changes are already taking place and will impact the regional clusters in different ways. Economic policy design in each country will have to accommodate these differences in order to ensure widespread and stable growth.

Code: IDB-MG-109. Author(s):Izquierdo, Alejandro. Talvi, Ernesto- Published: March 2011.Language: English

One Region, Two Speeds? Challenges of the New Economic Order for Latin America and the Caribbean

Macroeconomía para el desarrollo y el desafío del crecimiento con igualdad

Destacados economistas y funcionarios de la región participan en el Seminario internacional Preventing and managing debt crisis to promote long term sustainability organizado por la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), la Conferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre Comercio y Desarrollo (UNCTAD) y el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID).

El evento de dos días fue inaugurado el 9 de noviembre en la sede de la CEPAL en Santiago, Chile, por el Secretario Ejecutivo Adjunto de este organismo, Antonio Prado, y la Jefa de la Sección de Deuda y Financiamiento para el Desarrollo de la UNCTAD, Yuefen Li.

En la ceremonia de apertura, Yuefen Li destacó la realización del seminario como iniciativa conjunta de CEPAL, UNCTAD y el BID e invitó a los participantes, principalmente funcionarios encargados de la gestión de deuda en América Latina y el Caribe, a examinar las lecciones que está dejando la crisis que en este momento enfrentan algunos países de Europa.

Durante su intervención, Antonio Prado revisó la situación macroeconómica de América Latina y el Caribe y los retos que enfrentan los países en el corto, mediano y largo plazo. Su presentación se tituló "Macroeconomía para el desarrollo y el desafío del crecimiento con igualdad".

"La región enfrenta la actual coyuntura económica con importantes activos, pero también con debilidades significativas", señaló el alto representante. Entre las principales debilidades mencionó la estructura productiva y exportadora de la región, "que está basada en ventajas comparativas estáticas más que en ventajas competitivas dinámicas". También hay rezagos en innovación, ciencia y tecnología, educación e infraestructura, así como en productividad, enfatizó.

Si se desata una nueva crisis financiera global, lo cual depende principalmente de la evolución de la crisis en la zona euro, "la capacidad de manejo de la región va a depender de sus reservas internacionales, de su margen de política en los ámbitos monetario y fiscal y de la estructura de su comercio exterior, en términos de productos y mercados", planteó el Secretario Ejecutivo Adjunto.

En este sentido, destacó que las reservas internacionales de los países de la región han aumentado, que la deuda pública se mantiene en niveles relativamente bajos, con excepción del Caribe, y que se observa una tendencia a la reducción de la deuda bruta.

Entre los expositores del seminario también figuran Ugo Panizza, Jefe de la Unidad de Deuda y Análisis Financiero de la UNCTAD, Eduardo Fernández Arias, asesor del BID, Augusto de la Torre, Economista en Jefe para América Latina y el Caribe del BID y Ricardo Hausmann, Director del Centro para el Desarrollo Internacional de la Escuela Kennedy de la Universidad de Harvard, entre otros.

Participan funcionarios de Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, México, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Perú y República Dominicana.

• Ver presentación del Secretario Ejecutivo Adjunto, Antonio Prado, "Macroeconomía para el desarrollo y el desafío del crecimiento con igualdad".